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CNTE extends roadblocks to 4 states

They will only permit passage to automobile drivers, gasoline and national products.

Roadblock at the exit to Chiapa de Corzo and San Cristóbal de las Casas.

By: Angeles Mariscal and Isaín Mandujano

They will permit the passage of people in automobiles and public transportation, of food and gasoline; they will impede the movement of products and merchandise from “businesses owned by those who impelled the education reform.”

The leader of the National Coordinator of Education workers (CNTE) in Chiapas, Pedro Gómez Bámaca, announced that the state and national teachers’ assemblies decided to continue with the mobilizations to demand the abrogation of the education reform.

In a press conference, after announcing the suspension of the (national) negotiating table between the CNTE and the Secretary of Governance, Osorio Chong, and after the announcement of the functionary that public forces would unblock the roads occupied by teachers in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas [1], the leader of the Coordinator announced that they will maintain protest actions “cost what it may.”

“We are not going to demobilize, we have social support and because of that we announce that starting Thursday the teachers from the states of Guerrero and Michoacán will be added to the roadblocks,” he said.

Nevertheless, Gómez Bámaca recognized that the roadblocks they maintain at strategic points in Chiapas have affected the fuel supply and thus the population.

Because of that, he announced that beginning Wednesday night they will permit the passage of people in both private and public transportation; also the passage of gasoline, food and other necessary items. They will only impede the movement of products and merchandise that is the property of transnational corporations, “business owners that impelled the education reform,” detailed Manuel Mendoza, leader of the CNTE in the indigenous zone of Chiapas.

“The imposition of the reform has caused blood and those who orchestrated this reform were corporate owners; those that benefit from this reform are those owners. We say to them, your merchandise will not pass,” he warned.

Members of the Coordinator explained that as part of the support for their movement on the part of diverse sectors of society, and within the framework of the strategy for demanding renewal of the dialogue and abrogation of the education reform from the federal government, 15 parishes from the indigenous zone of Chiapas will march in a new demonstration of support next Friday, the third since the labor strike started. [2] This demonstration will end at the encampment that the teachers maintain in the center of the Chiapas capital.

On Saturday, also in the state’s capital, teachers, social organizations and residents from different parts of the state will hold what they called a “Meeting of peoples in defense of education, health, and territory.” [3]

The objective –they said- is to join together all the social dissent “and make just one river, a torrent. We warn that if there are consequences we assume them, (…). We demand that Osorio Chong be sensible and reopen the dialogue. All las laws have a way to be modified.”

[1] Chiapas and Oaxaca are the two states that have maintained roadblocks, occupations, marches and other protest actions from the start of the strike.

[2] Different sectors of Chiapas society hold marches in support of the teachers on different days. In addition to the roadblocks, social and cultural organizations march almost every day.